Bits

[unixronin]

The price of greed:  Last year's increase in license fees for Internet radio looks set to kill off Internet radio; Pandora is looking at paying 70% of its revenue in license fees, and preparing to pull the plug.

On a similar theme of shortsightedness, attempts to renew the Federal tax credit for solar-energy spending — which is driving a lot of solar-power investment and deployment — are repeatedly failing to pass, reportedly in part because Republicans don't want the Democrat party to get credit for extending it.  In a massive display of courage and firm vision in an election year, both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama abstained from voting.  Way to show your leadership quality, guys.  Can we declare a mulligan?

Comments

[skellington.livejournal.com]

Killing internet radio isn't about a revenue stream. It is about controlling the distribution of music. The labels want to continue being the only conduit for releasing music to the public. They want all music to be processed, packaged, marketed, and distributed exclusively by the labels.

Internet radio allows independent acts to get (wider) distribution without involving a label, broadcast radio, etc.

Part of the rules made it particularly difficult for acts to have their work streamed for free even if it was under Creative Commons or was otherwise encouraged to be distributed. THAT was the whole point; not a possible revenue stream.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I know. That doesn't make it smart. "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more systems will slip through your fingers." And the more the Old Guard try to tighten their grip on music distribution trying to preserve a moribund and obsolete business model, the more both performers and customers will rebel and find ways to avoid them.

In the short run, this looks like a good move to the Major Labels. In the long run, they're cutting their own throats.

[skellington.livejournal.com]

The other possibility is that we're discussing buggy whip manufacturers...

Their model is doomed. They've been hit by the freight train of innovation, and are broken and bleeding on the side of the tracks.

Anything they can do to squeeze a few more bucks and extend their system a few years is a win for them. Because there is no long term future no matter what.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Their historical model is doomed, but that doesn't mean they have to be doomed. Except that they're locking themselves into that course because they can't imagine any other way of doing business that'll still let them steal everyone else involved blind, and can't imagine being in business honestly.

[skellington.livejournal.com]

Actually they can imagine being in business honestly, and the profit margins are sufficiently small that they WON'T exist for all practical purposes. (Most honest businesses, historically, don't have a decent profit margin. Any profit is squeezed out by competitive forces, down to the cost / return on capital.)

They have no particular competitive advantage over small shops (or large shops) providing services such as music mixing, mastering CD's, producing CD's, distributing content via the Internet or even doing marketing.

If they don't have any special leverage on the means of distribution (i.e. Internet, Satellite, etc.) then they have no lasting competitive advantage to generate even a decent profit margin.

Further, very few businesses (IBM perhaps) have managed to reinvent themselves and burn down their old business model and successfully create an entirely new business based on a new model. (And not get clobbered entirely by some upstart.)

There will probably be some shop that ends up with their name. It may be that one or more of them do manage to reinvent themselves while buying out some upstart. Or some upstart (SBC) will manage to buy one of the old names (AT&T) mostly to get the name. But their primary value will be destroyed in the process.

Basically, we just need to make sure their death throes don't take us all down.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

It's Democratic party. (Unless you want to sound like a Newt. Hope you get better.) Obama seems to be running as a conservative Democrat. Now, if it was for corn biofuel, made in Illinois, he'd turn out. (Or "clean coal", also made in Illinois. Sigh.)